to short
- verb
- /ʃɔrt/
- Specialized
- He accidentally shorted the wires together, causing the lights to flicker and go out.
- short the circuit
- short out the wiring
- short out a wire
Examples
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Local press blames the entire thing on faulty wiring shorted out by a late-season storm.
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So to test that I have some salt water here to short my live wires and create some arc hopefully.
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If you try too early and it shorts, your phone is dead.
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But there is one way on YouTube at least to short circuit this effect.
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I suppose I can plug it in and short the fuse and just make sure that it works.
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And if I go here, you can see it is shorted there.
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Okay, if we can short out the firewall, I can...
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The car is shorting out.
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Wind-driven rain entering a home can short out wiring and cause a fire.
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Upon inspection, I also noticed that one of the ground wires had shorted out and cooked itself.
Blog text (21)
Synonyms
Make electricity flow along the wrong path and damage the device
Idioms
- Informal
Quick and pleasant without extra detail, often about a talk or message
- Informal
To end up by chance with an unpleasant task or in a worse position
Phrasal Verbs
- Specialized
To sell stocks you do not own hoping to buy them back at a lower price
Compounds
- Specialized
Selling a house for less than the amount owed on the mortgage with the bank's agreement
- Specialized
An accidental electrical connection that lets electricity flow the wrong way and can cause damage or fire
- Specialized
Selling shares you do not own to buy them back later at a lower price to make a profit
- Specialized
A radio wave that travels long distances and carries international broadcasts
- Specialized
To buy back shares you sold expecting their price to fall to close that position
- Specialized
A section of beef behind the ribs used to make porterhouse and T-bone steaks
- Specialized
A unit of weight used in the United States equal to 2,000 pounds, about 907 kilograms
- Specialized
In chess, moving the king two squares toward the kingside rook and placing that rook next to the king
- Specialized
A piece of beef from near the shoulder with short bones and meat for slow cooking
- Specialized
A bone about as long as it is wide and thick, found in the wrist and ankle
- Jargon
To move the king two squares toward its rook and put that rook beside the king
- Jargon
A chess move where the king moves two squares toward the kingside rook and that rook moves beside the king
- Specialized
An account with a broker that lets you sell stocks you do not own to buy back for less
- Specialized
A small blood vessel that carries blood from the artery near the spleen to the outer curve of the stomach
- Specialized
An American measure of weight equal to 100 pounds, about 45 kilograms
A vein that carries blood from the foot up the back of the leg to the knee
- Archaic
A card game for four people in two teams where you win points by taking tricks, played to five points
A small North American bird with a short bill that lives in wet meadows
- Specialized
A large pine tree with short needles that grows in the southern United States
- Specialized
A grasshopper with antennae shorter than its body that often eats plants and can damage crops
- Specialized
An acidic liquid that stops film or paper from developing before fixing
- Specialized
A wild flower like the fragrant orchid with smaller flowers, shorter stems, and very short spurs
- Specialized
A kind of cotton with short fibers that people use to make coarse cloth
How Damaging
Surface Forms
Etymology
Short as a verb for electric faults means to make that short path happen, so to short a circuit is to create the dangerous shorter route for the current.